Analog Gyros Wanted

I’m rather disappointed that Pololu has decided to discontinue the LPY510AL analog gyro and disappointed with the plan to clear out all analog gyros for digital types. What’s wrong with analog? Pololu offers analog accelerometers, why not compliment those with analog gyros and satisfy the huge customer base using ADC ports as part of the Arduino Mega, Due, mbed, etc.

Granted, STM is discontinuing the LPY510AL chip, but they are now actively producing the LPR410AL chip (1X and 4X outputs at 100dps & 400dps rates) similar to the 510AL.

Suggestions: 1) Sell the 510AL breakout board using the new LPR410AL chip, or 2) sell the LPY510AL breakout board with the components (minus the gyro chip), or 3) provide a special order option - this should be easy considering you have the design already (I’d be willing to pay $25 over the original $19.95 USD price). You’ll make your ADC customer base very happy.

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback. As you noted, the LPY510AL chip is discontinued by ST, so that is not something we have control over. (By the way, those analog accelerometers are getting discontinued, too.) The LPx4xx parts you mention have different packages, so the old PCBs would not work with them at all.

So, the only real option is to design a new board around a new chip. When we choose which parts to work with, we need to consider a range of factors, including what we expect the future for the parts to be. I would not want to invest any effort in those LPx4xx parts since my impression is that ST is not excited about them. It looks like they have some newer (L3G…) analog parts coming out, so we’ll keep an eye out for those.

Does anyone else strongly prefer gyros with analog output over digital?

- Jan

Offering a smart selection of digital and analog satisfies all customers, - digital for the Raspberry Pi and Basic stamp people and analog for the majority (Orangutan, Arduino, mbed, leaflabs, beagle, netduino, picaxe, etc.).

If Pololu needs to pick one or the other, then “analog” makes most sense because the clear majority of boards have multiple ADC ports - why let those go to waste?

I purchase most of my devices at Pololu and Adafruit. So I brought up this issue at Adafruit too:

forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.ph … 89#p195489